Orduna for more than four decades has displayed her commitment to the nursing profession, from caring bedside to serving as the longtime dean of nursing at Omaha’s Clarkson College. After graduating from the nursing school at Murray State University in Kentucky in 1970, she practiced briefly in Pittsburgh before returning to her native Omaha in 1975 to serve as a unit nurse at Clarkson Hospital. Her skills and leadership abilities were quickly recognized. She soon after became the assistant head nurse in the unit and by 1979 was named a nursing instructor at Clarkson College. In 1989, she returned to the hospital in an administrative role, by 1995 rising to director of evaluation and case management. She then returned to the college in 2000 as director of diversity services, developing and implementing a strategic plan to meet the college’s diversity goals and mentoring 50 minority students for the Clarkson College Gateway to Success Scholarship program to become BSN prepared nurses. From there, she climbed into the college’s top leadership positions, first directing the practical nursing program and then all undergraduate nursing programs before being named dean of nursing in October of 2009–a position she still holds. Orduna has also served as president of the Omaha Black Nurses’ Association since 2005 and has received numerous awards, including a positive image of nursing award from the Nebraska Nurses Association, Clarkson’s Caring Kind Award and a volunteer of the year award from the Kidney Foundation of Nebraska.